Bdwaed g



(No Model.)

E. G. T. COLLES'.

FEED WATBR'PURIFIER.

Patented Feb. 28, 18188 fulimmdfm ing the feed-water into the heater, the eXposlihvriian Starts EDWARD e. T. connus,

Partnr erica@ OF CHICAGO, ILLNCIS.

FEMNATER PURIFIER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 378,495, dated February 28, 188i?A Application filed Fi'abrunry 15, 1887. Serial No. 227.663. (No model.)

To @ZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EDWARD (i. T. Gottes, a citizen of the United States, residing in Chicago, county of Cook, and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful lmprovenients in Feed-Tater Purifiers, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in feed-water puriiiers in which live steam is employed to raise the temperature of the water and at the saine time induce the precipitation of scaleforming and other impurities suspended in said water.

In the prior constructions an objectionable feature is the manner of introducing the feedwater into the steam chamber, generally through perforations or slots formed in the feed-water pipe, to the end of whichis screwed or otherwise rigidly secured a dish-shaped pan into which the water first falls, and then overflows onto the series of fiat pans underlying the same; but practice has demonstrated that these pcrforations or slots soon become iilled with the lime and other scale-'forming substances, so that the feedwater cannot be forced therethrough, and if thisdoes not first result the perforations will eventually be stopped up by the deposits made in the bottoni oi' said pan, thereby necessitating the removal of the cap or covering of the heater in order to relieve the pipe of its obstructions.

Another and more serious objection to the prior constructions is the manner of dischargure of the end of the feed-pipe to the backpressure o" the steam being particularly disastrous when live steam is used, for the strain of each stroke of the feed-pump will follow the water into the feed -pipc, become instantly condensed, and thereby producea vacuum into which the water at the next stroke of the pump rushes with great force, resulting in a violent concussion which frequently disconnects or splits the Afeed-pipe, and practice has demonstrated that the use of a check-valve in the feedpipe is not sufficient to obviate this dificulty, the cheek-valve itselfl soon becoming injured beyond usefulness by the frequentlyrecurring concussions.

Still another objection to the prior construe tions is the rigid connection between cach pan of the series located in the steam-chamber or between the said pans and their common support, which necessitates the removal of all the pans in a body and renders the ready removal 'of each pan independent of the rest an impossibility, and this construction also renders necessary the removal of the heatercover whcneverthe pans are to be removed.

The prime object ot' thisinvention is to have aseries of sediment-pans located in the steamchainber and detachably connected together in such manner that the paus may be separately removed, and to have such pans coinposed of sections detachably connected together, whereby` they may be removed and replaced through man-holes, of a less diam` eter than the pans, provided in the heater for this purpose, and the necessity for the removal of the heatercover thus be avoided.

Other objects are to provide means for introducing the feedavater into the steam-charm ber in such manner that the clogging of the opening in the feedwater pipe is rendered impossible; to prevent steam l'roln entering the feed-water pipe, to provide a seal for the mouth of said pipe, whereby not only is the feed-water relieved of baclcpressure from the steam, but the necessity of employing a checkvalve in said pipe is avoided, and to se construct the deiiector or spreader that the water shall not oniy carry the precipitations out of said detiector, but will be spread out into a thin sheet form in its fall from said dei'lector to the series ot' sediment-pans below and be subjected to the direct action of a body oflive steam discharged within the surrounding sheet of water, whereby the impurities contained in the water are more quickly and thoroughly removed. I attain these objects by devices illustrated in the acconipanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 represents a central vertical section of a purilier embodying my invention, Fig. 2, a similar view of a portion of said heater, showing thc dellcctor or spreader and its pipe-connection inside elevation; Fig. 3, a detail plan view oi one et' the sediment-pans; Fig. 4, a central vertical section thereof, and Fig. 5 a detail view showing a modified construction of the heater in which the cover thereof is removable.

Similar letters of reference indicate the saine parts in the several figures of the drawings.

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2 erases Referring by letter to the accompanying drawings, A indicates an upright cylindrical receptacle, such as is commonly used iu feedwater heaters, supported upon the usual legs,

5 provided with end caps or cover and bottom,

B C, respectively, either one or both of which may be rendered readily removable by the construction shown in Fig. 5, which is especially designed for use in connection with 1o heaters of small capacity. This receptacle A is divided into two main compartments by a perforated partition, D, riveted or otherwise rigidly secured to the walls thereof, the lower compartment being again divided into two I5 chambers by a pipe, E, leading downwardly from the partition D, the lower end of which pipe at F, about midway the lower chamber, dares outwardly to the walls of the receptacle, thus forming a chamber between the daring 2o ends of said pipe and the partition D,which,

when iillcd with charcoal, coke, or other suitable material, constitutes a Vliltering-chamber, while the lower half of the chamber, between said pipe and the bottom of the heater, con- 2 5 stitutes a combined water and sediment chain ber. The iiaring portion of said pipe at F is perforated, as shown, so as to permit the passage of the water from said chamber into the ltering-chamber.

The upper end of the pipe F projects a short distance abovethe perforated partition D, where its end is formed into a funnel-shaped dish or partition, G, extending to the surrounding walls of the heater, to which it is connected by rivets or otherwise, thus forming a small water-chamber between said dish and the perforated partition D, into which passes the filtered and purified water and from which the water is drawn oii and conducted to the boiler 4o through the pipeH, )rejecting thcreinthrough the wall of the heater.

The upper part of the receptacle between the partition G and the cover B constitutes the steam-chamber of my heater, into which the water is iirst introduced and subjected to the action of steam, and in this chamber is located a series of sedimentpans, I, placed one above the other and supported in their relative positions and at a suitable or uniform distance 5o apart by means of short posts J', each of which., although having no connection with either pau, is supported by the pan beneath it, and in turn supports the one above it, the lowermost set of posts resting upon the partition G, upon which the weight of all the pans is borne.

Such a construction renders the pans inde pendently removable from the heaters-that is to say, the pans may be removed therefrom and replaced therein one at a timenwhieh 5o construction is especially useful when it is desired to empty the pans of the sediment deposited therein, which in the prior construe tion, in which the series of pans is formed into a single body, is rendered ditlcult and almost impossible in view of such construction; and

to avoid the necessity for cleansing said pans direction.

of sediment the escape-openings therein have been so located that the pans do not serve in the capacity of sediment-collectors at all, but simply as heating-pans to produce a greater superficial area of the water-surface and con` sequently expose the water tothe action of the steam for a greater length of time. These sediment-pans, for the purpose oi' their more ready removal and to at the same time enable their removal from the heater without the necessity of iirst removing` the cap or cover of the heater, arc formed into sections or parts K K, as clearly shown in Figs. 4 and 5,which parts are of a slightly less diameter than the man-holes L, formed in the walls of the heater, as shown, through which said sections may be removed one at a time. The sections may be united together by any suitable detachable connection which will permit of their separa tion and removal through the mau-holes; and for the purpose of illustration I have shown in the drawings a simple and effective means for producing this result, consisting of an upwardly-turned iiauge, M, on one section overlapped by an arch or bent iiange, N, formed on the adjoining section, and similar flanges, O l?, formed on the upturncd rim of side of each section of the pan, by means of which the sections can be readily separated from each other by lifting any one or more in a vertical The joints between the sections of the pans would in a very short while become sealed by the sediment deposited therein.

Each alternate pan Q. ofthe series is of a less diameter than the pan next below and above it, so that water overflowing from these pans would fall into the larger pans, it, next bclow, from which it in turn escapes through openings S, Yformed about the center of said pans, into the smaller pans, Q, below the said openings, being surrounded by an upwardlyprojecting iiange or.short length et' pipe, T, which projects upwardly from the bottom a suilicient height to give the water a depth in the pan of several inches, but has its end lie in a plane below the rim of the pan, so that the water in said pan will overliow through said pipe. This arrangement of the pan `gives the water a tortuous passage th rough the steamchamber, conducting it from the center, first outwardly to the outer edge ofthe pan, thence downwardly to the next pan, and back toward he center of this pan, whence it escapes to the next 'pan below, which operation is repeated continuously until the water has passed through the steam-chamber; and as a result of the longvcontinued subjection of the wat-er in thin sheets to the heat of the steam not only is the temperature of the water raised to a high degree, but most of the sediment contained therein is separated therefrom and precipitated in the sedinient-pans before the water reaches the main water-chamber in the lower part of the heater, where the sediment has usually been deposited in heaters as heretofore constructed, and as a consequence been ico continually stirred up and carried into the filtering-chamber by the influx therein of the feedwater from the steam-chamber.

` Another feature of my invention is the dellector or spreader U, located in the upper end ofthe steanrchamber, and having the shape of an inverted cone, said spreader being secured, by bolts or otherwise, to a cross-arm, V, screwed or otherwise secured about the center of its length to the end of the feed-water pipe NV, projecting downwardly through the cap or cover of the heater, said pipe terminating as near as possible to the interior apex ofthe hollow coneshaped spreader. The exterior surface of this spreader, as well as the top edge thereof, is corrugated or luted, so as to divide the water into numerous small streams in its overllow from said spreaderand to prevent the water flowing in one body over one side of the spreader should it or the heater be accidentally set out of plumb.

lThe open end of the feed-water pipe absolutely insures said pipe from choking, while the projection of this end into the bottom corner of the spreader, where it is surrounded on all sides by inclined diverging walls, prevents the accumulation of sediment in said spreader to an extent that would be liable to close the end ofsaid pipe, for the constant influx ofthe feed-water would carry all such sedi-ment up the inclined walls of the spreader and over the edge thereof into the sediment-pans beneath.

Steam is admitted into the steam-chamber through the pipe X, which opens at the apex of the spreader in the center ot' the circular sheet of water overflowing` from said spreader, and in such manner as to exert an expansive force upon said water, which materially aids the process of separation. The peculiar arrangement of the feedpipe and dellector also serves an important purpose, in that the water contained at all times in the latter acts as a seal for the said pipe, and not only relieves said pipe from the back-pressure of steam, but also eflectually prevents the entrance of steam into the said pipe, which would be particularly disastrous it" live steam were used in connection with the heater, for the reasons here inbefore stated, and it is obviously unnecessary with such a construction to employ a checkvalve in the feed-pipe; hence the advantage of introducing the water into the heater in such manner that the steam is prevented at all times from entering the water-supply pipe is, that live steam or steam at boilerpressure maybe used in my heater, resulting` in alarge precipitation of impurities and greater temperature of the feed-water than is possible in any heater' in which the water is not so introduced, for in such devices only exhaust-steam can be practically used.

So far as my invention is directed to preventing the steam entering the feed-water pipe, the deiicctor may be of any other form than that shown and the steam may be admitted at any point into the heater.

In Fig. 5 I have illustrated a modified form of the heater, in which the cap or covering is made removable for use in connection with heaters of small capacity, wherein the manholes i'or removing the sectional pans is not practical, or in cases where it is not desired to employ the sectional pans,

Having described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-` I. In a livesteam purifier, a series of sediment-pans located in the steam-chamber and detachably connected together, each of said pans being composed of sections detachably connected together, substantially as described.

2. In a livesteam purifier, the steam-chamber and manholes provided with removable caps opening` therein, in combination with a series of sedimentpans located in said chamber detachably connected together, and each of said pans composed of sections detachably connected together and of a width less than the diameter of said manholes, substantially as described.

3. In a live-steam purifier, a dellector or spreader suspended in the steam-chamber and having the shape of an inverted hollow cone, in combination with an open-ended feed-water pipeprojectingintosaidspreader,substantially as described.

Il. In a livesteam purilier, a deiilector or spreader suspended in the Steamchamber and having the shape of an inverted hollow cone, in combination with an open-ended feedwater pipe p roj ectiug into said spreader, and a steampipe opening on the apex of said cone-'shaped spreader, substantially as described.

EDWARD Gr.V T. COLLES. Witnesses:

WLL It. OMOHUNDRO,

A. Mclvna.

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